The Humanitarian Crisis and Strategic Value of Aiding Transgender Russians

Policy Brief

The Humanitarian Crisis and Strategic Value of Aiding Transgender Russians

Abstract

As a retroactive centerpiece justifying the war in Ukraine, attacking “Western values” has led to systematic and frequently violent discrimination against LGBTQ people in Russia. Of particular concern in recent events are transgender people in Russia, who face criminalization, lack of healthcare access, and seizure of children, when in July 2023 the Russian Parliament banned transgender medical care and parenthood. While the human rights violations of transgender people merit support in their own right, the underlying political usage of this violence as a distraction and justification for the war in Ukraine also lends strategic value to aiding persecuted LGBTQ people in Russia. To address the issue, the European Union should take steps to provide asylum and gender affirming care to persecuted transgender Russians in partnering Former Soviet Union (FSU) states, and prioritize publicizing successes. These measures will highlight the hypocrisy of Russia’s ethnic-minority based justification for the war in Ukraine. They will also make the West more appealing to many Russians by demonstrating equality. Finally, they simultaneously avoid casting LGBTQ rights as a Western incursion of Russian values by focusing on Former Soviet Union support and free movement rather than direct intervention via military or economic measures.

Practitioner Points

Recent anti-trans policies in Russia ban healthcare and separate families, constituting human rights violations
These policies embody Russian anti-“Western values” propaganda which is used to justify the invasion of Ukraine
The EU should strategically provide asylum and healthcare to transgender Russians by partnering with Former Soviet Union countries which will incidentally undermine the effectiveness of anti-West propaganda

Background

Historical Context

LGBTQ human rights in Russia have been steadily degrading since the early years of Vladimir Putin’s administration in the early 2000’s. This came to a head in 2013 with the passage of the “gay propaganda” law (passed with a 436-0 vote in the Duma), which banned information concerning LGBTQ people spread among minors. Fast forward to 2022 and this anti-propaganda law was expanded to apply to all citizens (Litvinova 2023). Meanwhile, beginning April 2017, Chechnya saw immense violence against LGBTQ people at the orders of Chechan president Ramzan Kadyrov (European Court of Human Rights 2023). A very well documented case comes from Lapunov v. Russia, tried in the European Court of Human Rights. In this case, Lapunov describes being abducted, beaten, forced to turn in his homosexual friend (who was allegedly killed by Chechan police), and cleaning blood from cell floors. The Court found Russia guilty of human rights violations based on Article 3 (torture). In total, some 120 people had fled the Chechan violence as of 12 September 2023, with many receiving asylum from western European countries or Canada. The recent targeting of transgender Russians is a long continuation of demonization of LGBTQ people in Russia which has resulted in discrimination, suffering, torture, violence, and refugees.

Problem

In July 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a law which criminalized transgender healthcare in Russia. The law also bans transgender people from adopting children, and its implementation has torn children from their parents (Russia: Violates Rights 2023; MacFarquhar & Birger 2023).

Transgender healthcare is a deeply concerning humanitarian issue: transgender suicide attempt rates range from 32-50% depending on the country (Virupaksha, Muralidhar, & Ramakrishna 2016). Access to gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) as a treatment has been found to correlate strongly with reduced suicidality (D’hoore & T’Sjoen 2022; Green et al. 2021). Therefore, recent developments in Russia which ban access to GAHT pose serious health risks to transgender Russians.

Vladimir Putin frames attacks on LGBTQ rights as a fight against Western values and furthermore uses this as justification for the war in Ukraine to rally internal support. On February 24th, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. The European Union and the United States combined have provided approximately 200 billion euros aid to Ukraine to date (Bomprezzi Kharitonov, & Trebesch 2024). The West is therefore deeply invested in Ukrainian sovereignty. On September 30th, 2022, Vladimir Putin signed treaties claiming regions of eastern Ukraine as Russian territory. In his speech (Putin 2022) celebrating the annexations, Putin rhetorically asks:

Do we want our schools to impose on our children, from their earliest days in school, perversions that lead to degradation and extinction? Do we want to drum into their heads the ideas that certain other genders exist along with women and men and to offer them gender reassignment surgery? Is that what we want for our country and our children? … Let me repeat that the dictatorship of the Western elites targets all societies, including the citizens of Western countries themselves. This is a challenge to all. This complete renunciation of what it means to be human, the overthrow of faith and traditional values, and the suppression of freedom are coming to resemble a “religion in reverse” – pure Satanism.

This portrayal of “pure Satanism” lays bare the clearest rationale for Russia’s transgender human rights violations – the demonization of a minority to monger fear, gain favor with traditional religious Russians, and ultimately increase support for the increasingly costly war in Ukraine. While the targeting of LGBTQ people to provide a scapegoat for internal discord is a humanitarian issue, it also reveals weaknesses in Russian support for the war which can be leveraged by both strategically and genuinely offering significant aid to those targeted.

Solution

Existing solutions

No unified action has been taken by Europe or other countries to address the human rights violations of transgender Russians. In 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that separating transgender Russians’ families was a violation of Article 8, but Russia left the Council of Europe on 16 September 2022 and no longer abides by the rulings (TGEU 2024a). Comparably, in 2017, many LGBTQ Chechans received asylum in European countries, but there were no formal efforts of aid (European Court of Human Rights 2023).

Recommendations

To address the crisis, the EU Commission should propose legislation which takes the following steps:

1. Fund clinics for transgender healthcare, prioritizing hormone replacement therapy, in willing participant countries in the area of the Former Soviet Union, such as Georgia, Moldova, Latvia, and Estonia

2. Encourage these states to offer asylum to transgender Russians

The combination of these two steps will allow transgender Russians to access care that effectively reduces suicidality (D’hoore & T’Sjoen 2022; Green et al. 2021) while affording protection from the rising violence against LGBTQ people in Russia as seen by the torture in Chechnya and hate crimes elsewhere. Furthermore, this strategy undermines the Kremlin’s justification of the war in Ukraine. By supporting LGBTQ rights primarily in FSU countries via aid, and only for those that are willing to publicly accept, Russia’s claim that the West imposes “nontraditional values” on non-European countries is undermined, showing that these values are shared by FSU countries with many ethnic Russians. Intervening instead via sanctions or covert operations would risk reinforcing Putin’s “Western values” narrative.

3. Publicly and strongly offer asylum to the remaining transgender Russian asylum-seekers that cannot be absorbed by willing Former Soviet Union countries

4. Publicize these efforts and profile willing asylum seekers in local and national media

The combination of these actions will reinforce the reputation of the European Union’s value of equality and enforcement of human rights, while also offering aid to transgender victims. It strengthens the solidarity of the FSU countries’ commitment to equality, as well as appealing to Russians who share this value.

Considerations

Risks and Implementation Issues

These policy recommendations raise the question of possible anti-LGBTQ backlash in both Russia and partnering countries. This is a possible and even likely scenario in certain FSU countries like Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, one with criminalized “sodomy” and the other with LGBTQ crackdowns like those of Chechnya (TGEU 2024b; Azerbaijan: Anti-Gay Crackdown 2017). But there is no possible starting point to undoing popular LGBTQ antipathy if not by at least highlighting successful progressive policies in nearby countries and normalizing the LGBTQ communities there. Thus, it is imperative to start with receptive partnering countries and to emphasize the publicity of the program. The FSU countries suggested above (Estonia, Latvia, Moldova, and Georgia) are the most likely to be receptive to supporting transgender Russians and aligning themselves with the EU’s commitment to human rights. Of the FSU these countries are among the few which both allow transgender GAHT and have laws protecting anti-gay discrimination, signaling their support for equality and desire to protect human rights. However, that does not mean the public fully supports LGBTQ equality in these countries. For example, a survey in Georgia shows that homophobia is prevalent, with 76% of people opposing gay marriage in 2021 (High but Declining Homophobia in Georgia 2022). In this regard, particularly concerning Georgia’s recent echo of Russia’s anti-gay “propaganda” bans, Georgia may not be receptive. However, in 2014, when Georgia was pursuing EU accession, LGBTQ rights were more strongly supported (Megrelidze & Litinova 2024). An opportunity to partner with the EU may become desirable depending on the Georgian administration and parliament. Moldova has a similarly divided populus with 55% of people showing positive or neutral attitudes towards LGBTQ people in 2023. Yet in 2022 a pro-Western government amended protections for LGBTQ into a discriminatory law (Ticudean 2023). Like Georgia, political leaning may be a strong indicator of receptiveness to the proposed policies. Of the four countries, Estonia is the most likely to offer protection for transgender Russians, as the only FSU country with legal same sex marriage. Latvia is also a strong possibility, having elected the EU’s first openly gay head of state in 2023. Starting with these more open states and subsequently reporting results across Europe and in local news may inspire other FSU states like Moldova and Georgia to participate, as states with significant support for EU accession.

Finally, the European Union is already struggling with more migration than it can absorb. Offering asylum to transgender Russians may be seen as a burden that cannot be afforded. However, the number of transgender Russians has an upper limit of around .5 million total, but the number who changed their gender marker over 7 years being less than 3,000 (Solovieva, Makarova, & Kremenitskaya 2023; Russia: Bill Violates Rights 2023). The number of asylum seekers would be far less than the millions of migrants the EU faces each year, even if every single transgender person in a country of 143 million managed to emigrate all at once.

Conclusion

In sum, the humanitarian and strategic advantages of the EU partnering with FSU countries to offer healthcare and asylum to persecuted transgender Russians far outweigh the costs of implementation and the ethical toll of the hypocrisy of inaction. To live up to its reputation for equality and human rights support, the EU should act to aid transgender Russians.

References

Azerbaijan: Anti-Gay Crackdown. (2017, November 8). Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/03/azerbaijan-anti-gay-crackdown. (referenced 21 October 2024). This article by HRW describes police kidnappings, brutality, and torture of LGBTQ people in Azerbaijan around September 2017. (In text reference: Azerbaijan: Anti-Gay Crackdown 2017)

Bomprezzi, P., Kharitonov, I., & Trebesch, C. (2024, February 16). Ukraine Support Tracker - a Database of Military, Financial and Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine. Kiel Institute for the World Economy. https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/. (referenced 21 October 2024). The Kiel Institute tracks cumulative support to Ukraine since January 2022 from various countries. It is mostly funded by the German Federal government. (In text reference: Bomprezzi Kharitonov, & Trebesch 2024)

D’hoore, L., & T’Sjoen, G. (2022). Gender‐affirming hormone therapy: An updated literature review with an eye on the future. Journal of Internal Medicine, 291(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/joim.13441. (referenced 21 October 2024). This is an up to date (2022) literature review of 91 studies of gender affirming hormone treatment (GAHT), finding that GAHT reduces mental health issues and presents no evidence of severe health complications caused by the process. (In text reference: D’hoore & T’Sjoen 2022)

European Court of Human Rights. (2023, December 12). CASE OF LAPUNOV v. RUSSIA. Hudoc.echr.coe.int; HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights. https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-226449. (referenced 21 October 2024). The European Court of Human Rights published the transcript of the trial of Lapunov v. Russia, a trial in which Maksim Lapunov alleged that Chechan police officers kidnapped and tortured him, on the basis of his sexuality. The Court sided with Mr. Lapunov and found Russia guilty. (In text reference: European Court of Human Rights 2023)

Green, A. E., DeChants, J. P., Price, M. N., & Davis, C. K. (2021). Association of Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy With Depression, Thoughts of Suicide, and Attempted Suicide Among Transgender and Nonbinary Youth. Journal of Adolescent Health, 70(4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.10.036. (referenced 21 October 2024). This study relies on large amounts of survey data collected among transgender youth, which found a strong correlation between gender affirming hormone treatment and lower suicidal ideation. (In text reference: Green et al. 2021)

Litvinova, D. (2023, November 30). Russia’s Supreme Court effectively outlaws LGBTQ+ activism in a landmark ruling. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/russia-lgbtq-crackdown-extremist-supreme-court-1b8f4cd8708d1c6cf3486c5f27fd7354. (referenced 21 October 2024). This article describes a recent Russian court ruling which criminalized the “LGBTQ+ movement” as an extremist organization. (In text reference: Litvinova 2023)

MacFarquhar, N., & Birger, G. (2023, August 1). Putin’s Crackdown Leaves Transgender Russians Bracing for Worse. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/world/europe/russia-transgender-ban.html. (referenced 21 October 2024). Journalists from the NYT deep dive into the damage done to transgender families whose children were separated from them in Russia after the 2023 law criminalizing transgender hormone treatment, surgery, marriage, and adoption. (In text reference: MacFarquhar & Birger 2023)

Megrelidze, S., & Litinova, D. (2024, September 17). Georgian parliament approves anti-LGBTQ legislation, echoing measures in Russia. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/georgia-lgbtq-rights-samesex-marriage-57ede62918ec995f21473f23f5676f80. (referenced 21 October 2024). This article in AP News describes the LGBTQ rights backslide in Georgia as government dominated by the Georgian Dream party mimics Russian anti-LGBTQ measures like banning same-sex marriage and adoption, and gender affirming care. (In text reference: Megrelidze & Litinova 2024)

Putin, V. (2022, September 30). Signing of treaties on accession of Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions to Russia. President of Russia; Kremlin. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69465. (referenced 21 October 2024). This is the Kremlin’s translation of Vladimir Putin’s speech at the signing of “treaties on accession”, claiming to incorporate Donetsk and Luhansk regions into Russia. Among other tropes, Putin points to transgender people as imposing “perversions” on children in his explanation of the invasion of Ukraine. (In text reference: Putin 2022)

Russia: Trans Health Care, Families Bill Violates Rights. (2023, July 15). Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/15/russia-trans-health-care-families-bill-violates-rights. (referenced 21 October 2024). This source explains the impact of the Russian ban on transgender healthcare, adoption, marriage, and other rights that are violated. (In text reference: Russia: Violates Rights 2023)

Solovieva, N., Makarova, E., & Kremenitskaya, S. (2023). Transgender population in the Russian Federation: diversity and trends. European Journal of Translational Myology, 33(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/ejtm.2023.11419. (referenced 21 October 2024). The author analyzes the statistics of the transgender population in Russia and the prevalence of care. (In text reference: Solovieva, Makarova, & Kremenitskaya 2023)

Study Shows Homophobic Views Still High, But Declining in Georgia. (2022, May 17). Civil Georgia. https://civil.ge/archives/490693. (referenced 21 October 2024). Civil Georgia is a publisher funded by many pro-democracy institutions, including the National Endowment for Democracy. Here, it summarized surveys of Georgians about their attitudes towards homosexuality. These beliefs have generally become more hostile, with, for example, increasing beliefs that gay men are pedophiles and should be banned from working in education. (In text reference: High but Declining Homophobia in Georgia 2022)

TGEU. (2024a, July 12). European Court of Human Rights rules against Russia: Trans parent’s foster-care termination violates family rights . TGEU - Transgender Europe. https://tgeu.org/european-court-of-human-rights-rules-against-russia-trans-parents-foster-care-termination-violates-family-rights/. (referenced 21 October 2024). TGEU (Trans Europe and Central Asia) is funded by the European Union and advocates for transgender rights in Europe and Central Asia. This article discusses the European Court of Rights’ ruling that Russia violated the human rights of a transgender man whose children were separated from him. (In text reference: TGEU 2024a)

TGEU. (2024b, August 8). Uzbekistan’s LGBT community is under threat: Escalating human rights violations continue amid legal and social repression. TGEU - Transgender Europe. https://tgeu.org/uzbekistans-lgbt-community-is-under-threat-escalating-human-rights-violations-continue-amid-legal-and-social-repression/. (referenced 21 October 2024). TGEU documents Uzbekistan’s mounting human rights violations against LGBTQ people as well as maintaining anti-LGBTQ laws like criminalizing sodomy. (In text reference: TGEU 2024b)

Ticudean, M. (2023, May 14). While Problems Remain, Moldova Makes Big Gains On LGBT Rights. RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty; RFE/RL. https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova-gains-lgbt-rights/32411055.html. (referenced 21 October 2024). RFE/RL describes the progress and setbacks in Moldovan LGBTQ rights, primarily reporting on an ILGA-Europe report tracking discriminatory laws and LGBTQ protections. (In text reference: Ticudean 2023)

Virupaksha, H., Muralidhar, D., & Ramakrishna, J. (2016). Suicide and suicidal behavior among transgender persons. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 38(6), 505. https://doi.org/10.4103/0253-7176.194908. (referenced 21 October 2024). This is a literature review of 21 studies of suicidal behavior in transgender individuals which concludes that the transgender suicide attempt rate is between 31 - 50% across different countries. (In text reference: Virupaksha, Muralidhar, & Ramakrishna 2016)